Son is being chased by solicitors

bubbleoflife_2

My son completed BSc last June and has been looking for work (any kind of work) for past months. He's on JSA at the moment and I am on low income (I work part-time).

I received calls from Student Loan chasing him about a loan that they had paid to the University but they're now saying (that's what they're writing to him about as solicitors/student load co. won't disclose information to me) that my son owes them.
Yesterday I received a call from solicitors acting on behalf of son's former university and my son tells me that solicitors and Student Load Co. have all his details but will keep calling.

Why do they keep calling my landline even though they have his mobile number?
Are we in danger of finding ourselves with bailifs at the door?

I'm really worried

Lokolo

Does your son still live with you? If so, why is he not sorting it out?

I suspect he already knows whats going on and is avoiding the issue.

The_One_Who

There is obviously something more to this story than he is perhaps letting on. The SLC pay the university the fees direct, and if they didn't receive them he would have been classed as being in debt to the university and would not have graduated. For the majority of students in debt to the SLC they do not receive any contact from them apart from the odd letter/statement, if they are lucky.

They won't talk to you because everything is in his name, and really, he should be the one trying to find out what is going on if he doesn't already know. Avoiding the issue will not help.

bubbleoflife_2

Lokolo wrote: »

Does your son still live with you? If so, why is he not sorting it out?

I suspect he already knows whats going on and is avoiding the issue.

Yes, he lives with me and he tells me that he's going to sort it out. But I'm worried.

Lokolo

bubbleoflife wrote: »

Yes, he lives with me and he tells me that he's going to sort it out. But I'm worried.

Well depending on the issue, yes baliffs could turn up. Depends what the issue is though.

Oldernotwiser

Are you absolutely sure that he finished his degree?

melancholly

something is very fishy. he needs to sort this out, but as he's not, you need to get him to show you all the paperwork and fully open up about what's going on. this can't be the student loans company (unless maybe he dropped out and didn't tell you?) and it can't be uni or he wouldn't have been able to graduate. all very odd and clearly stressful for you. give him a good shake and make him face this. ignoring things is never the best way to deal with it. once you know what the debt is and who it is with, then different strategies can be employed (the DFW board may well be very useful), but he needs to pull his head out of the sand, realise how unfair this is on you and get everything in hand.....

charlishae

That sounds strange. Student Loans dont ask you pay back the loan until you are in fulltime employment and so seeing as your son isnt they would not ask for it and not in that manner too.

Oldernotwiser

charlishae wrote: »

That sounds strange. Student Loans dont ask you pay back the loan until you are in fulltime employment and so seeing as your son isnt they would not ask for it and not in that manner too.

They can do if you drop out of your course.

kaz18

Our experience of Student Loans isn't good. They seemed to change the goalposts each year our son went to Uni. They wanted proof of income for 2 years prior to him starting Uni, then they were asking for proof of income 2 years in the future - and this continued on a regular basis - they didn't seem to know what info they required.

Our son, following graduation, was then constantly being pestered by Student Loans' letters saying he needed to pay back some of his money.

This went on for months - they claimed they hadn't received our "proof of income" for myself and my husband. This had been sent some 6 months prior - and posted signed for at their offices.

We re-sent the evidence they required (including a letter from HMRC) (for my income and my husband's in separate envelopes and I sent them a week apart) and all was quiet.

Another month later, my son had another threatening letter saying he hadn't provided the required evidence so would have to repay the money. We both phoned Student Loans and he was told the info still hadn't been received. When I phoned, I was told that they had received all the info the day before - and it was being processed; so nothing to worry about as they would sort it out.

Another couple of weeks later, we received yet another letter - these are quite threatening - and when we know that he qualified for the monies he received, this is quite frustrating. What makes it worse is that we would love to pay the monies he owes just to know these letters will stop, but we can't afford it.

I'm writing this, as don't be too hasty and assume it is the student that has done something wrong.

Taiko

I'll be hasty, as no assessment was ever two years in the future.

If solicitors are involved in this, there's something not right. From experience, it will be a withdrawal without notice (which happens), review information not received (does happen), or possibly even attempted fraud (not unheard of).